The outbreak of the Covid-19 has forced companies all over the world to adapt to a new and quite often strange situation. Gone are the days where everyone can just pile into the office 5 days a week. Instead the vast bulk of the world’s workforces are working from home. Whilst this isn’t a new concept, for many who haven’t worked from home before it can be a very different experience and difficult to adapt to. Whilst you can just leave employees to find their own way, we think it’s best to assist people with the transition so they can make the most of the situation. If you’re able to assist them you may discover that the work from home set up is very beneficial and you’ll see benefits long after the pandemic is over.
- Encourage a Healthy Workspace
For many employees there may not be a specific area in the house that can be used for homework as we don’t all have the luxury of a home office. This can present a challenge for employees as the blurring of lines between home life and work can lead to work life balance being thrown into disarray. It’s very easy to get into a habit of working in areas which before were used exclusively for relaxation and this can cause the development of habits such as checking emails outside of hours which can lead to burnout in employees. To counter this the best thing to do is designate an area of the home to be a specific workspace, and employers should communicate this to staff in a clear way to make sure the message gets through.
It might seem counter intuitive, but you want to ensure that your employees are not doing too much outside of their work hours. There is a real risk of burnout if they go too far beyond what they normally do. Developing a routine is one thing that can help avoid this. Some of it down to the employee individually (such as going for a walk at a time when they might otherwise be commuting to get them into a work mindset in the morning), but employers can help in this by developing weekly routines for people working from home. Regular touch points for contact from managers to make sure everything is okay, and timetabled tasks to ensure that everyone knows what they’re doing as just a few examples.
Employees need to be aware of requirements of individual employees though. Sometimes factors such as childcare will need to be considered, so employees should be ready to help change timetables and routines for specific employees based on their needs. If an hour long gap in the day is needed to pick kids up from school, or if they need to start an hour later due to dropping them at school in the morning then employees should work with the employee to find ways to make this work by changing start and finish times for work.
- Encourage people to be social
When working from home you can find yourself stuck in an odd position of barely speaking to anyone during the day. This can be problematic as catching up with colleagues and chatting with them over lunch or on coffee breaks is a great way to help relieve stress. Without that stress relief employees may not be able to find the working from home experience as pleasant as they could.
Employers have a duty of care towards their employees and that includes their mental health. As such they need to investigate ways, they can encourage people who are working from home to be social. Sometimes this is a simple case of just letting pre-established meetings start a little late and letting people catch up with each other before moving to the scheduled agenda. Other times it might be a case of booking in some specific times for employees to do some team-based tasks and games. Quizzes, bingo sessions or scheduled lunches where everyone hops onto a video conference to eat lunch together are some basic ideas that can be incorporated into the working week to assist in keeping employees social.
- Invest in the proper technology
With people working from home you also need to ensure that the right technology is available in the office to allow for efficient workflows to develop. This can be in the form of instant messaging services and Unified Communications platforms to enable easy communication for everyone in the team, but it can also involve setting up proper video conferencing systems in the office so that everyone in a meeting that involves a remote workers can be heard properly.
